Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan and tainting the show. I am joined by
Speaker 1: Georgia Hunter and host of Realtree Road Trips Tyler Jordan's
Speaker 1: to discuss exactly how he'd handled some of the most
Speaker 1: challenging deer hunting scenarios in the white tail woods. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
Speaker 1: by First Light, and today we are in week three
Speaker 1: of our what would You Do series, in which we
Speaker 1: are tossing some of the best hunters in the world
Speaker 1: a series of difficult hunting scenarios, all sorts of different stuff.
Speaker 1: Some of these are the same questions I asked the
Speaker 1: guys over and over again. Sometimes there are questions more
Speaker 1: ciffic to their unique experiences. But the main thing we're
Speaker 1: getting at here is trying to get into the minds
Speaker 1: of these deer hunters to figure out how they tackle,
Speaker 1: how they deal with tough hunting situations, how they make
Speaker 1: their decisions, how they deal with adversity. That's the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff I want to know, leading into my next
Speaker 1: hunting season. How can I get better at those things?
Speaker 1: And today Tyler Jordan's gonna help us do that. I
Speaker 1: think you probably know what Tyler Jordan is. He's the
Speaker 1: son of Bill Jordan, the founder of Real Tree, the
Speaker 1: host of a whole bunch of hunting shows and films
Speaker 1: and videos over the years, and Tyler has taken the
Speaker 1: reins on Real Tree road trips, doing a great job,
Speaker 1: great hunter, lots of experience, and I think one of
Speaker 1: the interesting things that Tyler brings to the table is
Speaker 1: that he hunts a whole bunch of different places across
Speaker 1: the country every year. So he's seen deer acting a
Speaker 1: certain way in the Southeast, and he's seed and deer
Speaker 1: act a certain way in the Midwest, and he's seen
Speaker 1: it in the West, and he's seen it in the South,
Speaker 1: and he's been on kind of all points in between.
Speaker 1: There's not a whole lot of people who probably have
Speaker 1: been to as many different locations as Tyler has. And
Speaker 1: he's been with very very good hunters too. He's been
Speaker 1: in hunting camps with some incredibly experienced and successful folks,
Speaker 1: so he's gotten to learn from the best of the best.
Speaker 1: And what I really like about Tyler is that he's
Speaker 1: willing to just give it to you straight. What he
Speaker 1: has experienced, what he knows, what he doesn't know. He's
Speaker 1: he's a human being just like the rest of us,
Speaker 1: and he's made mistakes, He's learned from him and he's
Speaker 1: gotten better. I think there's some cool things we can
Speaker 1: learn from him here too. So today I'm putting him
Speaker 1: through the what would you do? Gauntlet, going to get
Speaker 1: some interesting perspective on things from the Southeast, Gonna learn
Speaker 1: a little bit more about how he tackles these short
Speaker 1: traveling hunts. You're going to try to pick a few
Speaker 1: things from him. From someone who gets a chance to
Speaker 1: take his shots at lots of deer every single year,
Speaker 1: you know, what can you learn from somebody like that
Speaker 1: when it comes to improving your shot sequence and dealing
Speaker 1: with buck fever all that kind stuff. This is a
Speaker 1: good one. It was a fun one. I appreciate Tyler
Speaker 1: jourding this and uh I think you guys will enjoy
Speaker 1: it too. Now, real quick, before we get to the
Speaker 1: main show, I want to give you a couple of
Speaker 1: quick plugs. If you are not already, highly recommend you
Speaker 1: sign up for the Wired to Hunt weekly newsletter. You
Speaker 1: can do that by going over to the meat eater
Speaker 1: dot com sign up on the newsletter there. That's where
Speaker 1: you'll get my every Monday note in which I kind
Speaker 1: of update you on what's new in my world or
Speaker 1: what's new with wired to Hunt, things like that, maybe
Speaker 1: a quick tip for the week. Uh, And then as
Speaker 1: well well that we also then share with you the
Speaker 1: latest content from meat Eater and Wired Hunt's whitetail world.
Speaker 1: So we've got all of our podcasts on there are
Speaker 1: YouTube videos or articles. That's where you can stay up
Speaker 1: to date on all of those things. Now, a couple
Speaker 1: of the things in our world this past week, our
Speaker 1: pals over at First Let have launched a couple of
Speaker 1: new exciting things. Number one, the Sanctuary and Solitude systems,
Speaker 1: our main outer ware systems are now fully windproof. It's
Speaker 1: something that folks have been asking for for a long time,
Speaker 1: myself included, and now we're able to do it and
Speaker 1: keep these things quiet. There's a new built in integrated
Speaker 1: windproof memory that makes these suckers just hum I mean,
Speaker 1: perfect windproof, no noise, just what you want. So that's exciting.
Speaker 1: And then number two, a new piece a totally new
Speaker 1: jacket just launched as well, called the Source Jacket. It's
Speaker 1: an idea I've had for years. I've really hoped and
Speaker 1: dreamed we would do it. I talked to the first
Speaker 1: Light designers about this almost five years ago when I
Speaker 1: first came on to Mediator and said, I really want
Speaker 1: a super lightweight, ultra packable, silent puffy for white tail hunting.
Speaker 1: I wanted that little tiny puff. I used to have
Speaker 1: this nano puff made by Patagonia that I loved. It
Speaker 1: was so tiny you could stuff in a water bottle
Speaker 1: and take it with you if you want it and
Speaker 1: pull it on when you need that luxtra warmth. Well,
Speaker 1: First Letters gone and created that kind of thing that
Speaker 1: I've always hoped for. It's called the Source jack get.
Speaker 1: It's very quiet, it's packable, it's lightweight, and it gives
Speaker 1: you that extra boost of instulation. If you want to
Speaker 1: throw it on as an outer layer, you can. It's
Speaker 1: dw are treated got a tough outer fabric. You can
Speaker 1: handle briers and bark and stuff like that. Or it
Speaker 1: works really well as an inside layer to kind of
Speaker 1: boost anything else you're wearing, so you can put underneath
Speaker 1: your solitude system, and it's basically now the equivalent of
Speaker 1: something like the sanctuary or put it on underneath your
Speaker 1: sanctuary and you're basically wearing a sleeping bag that's gonna
Speaker 1: keep you warm no matter what. So highly recommend checking
Speaker 1: out the source. It was one of my favorite new
Speaker 1: pieces last year when I got to use the proto
Speaker 1: and uh, I think you guys will really dig it
Speaker 1: to So all that stuff you can find if you
Speaker 1: go to my gear recommendations on the first Light site.
Speaker 1: That's store dot the meat eater dot com slash mark,
Speaker 1: So just go to the Mediator store slash mark and
Speaker 1: you'll find those things listed there as well as a
Speaker 1: few of the other items that I highly recommend from
Speaker 1: first Light too. So that is it. That's my plug.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you joining me. I hope you've been enjoying this series.
Speaker 1: We've been kind of trying to get a really diverse
Speaker 1: mix of folks. We've had like Land Manager with Grant Woods.
Speaker 1: We had like the public land d i y do
Speaker 1: with Eddie Claypool. Now I've got Tyler who's done some
Speaker 1: more private lands and lease some outfitted stuff. I've been
Speaker 1: all over the country and had those unique experiences. And
Speaker 1: then next week we've got another door pounder, d I
Speaker 1: O Y Hunter, who I think you guys would really
Speaker 1: get a kick out of as well. So I'm hoping
Speaker 1: we're all going to learn something from these very different
Speaker 1: deer hunters that are all successful in their own ways.
Speaker 1: I dig it, that's the way I like to learn.
Speaker 1: I hope you do too. Let's get to the show
Speaker 1: all right here with me now on the podcast, we've
Speaker 1: got Tyler Jordan's Tyler, thank you so much for making
Speaker 1: time to do this, Mark, thanks for having me on Dear.
Speaker 1: Season's fast approaching, and I know, like everybody probably listening
Speaker 1: right now, I'm starting to get the edge a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah I am. I am right there of you, And
Speaker 1: so I think you know, like I was telling me
Speaker 1: a second ago, this format of episode we're gonna do
Speaker 1: is one of the best ways I know to scratch
Speaker 1: that edge leading in this season, because we're gonna kind
Speaker 1: of spitball on a whole bunch of scenarios that we
Speaker 1: might find ourselves in here in a in a matter
Speaker 1: of weeks. So I think it should be fun. Sounds good. So, Tyler,
Speaker 1: I've got what I call the what would you do
Speaker 1: gauntlet plan for it Today, basically, what that means, I'm
Speaker 1: going to present you with a bunch of hypothetical hunting scenarios.
Speaker 1: Some of them are kind of fun to imagine, some
Speaker 1: of them are real doozies to imagine. It's going to
Speaker 1: take you to a dark place and you're not gonna
Speaker 1: like me anymore. But but I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: think by walking through these and kind of thinking through
Speaker 1: like how you'd approach it, I think we'll get to
Speaker 1: learn and get an interesting look into kind of how
Speaker 1: you approach deer hunting. And what I love about what
Speaker 1: I've been doing with this podcast over the years. I
Speaker 1: guess I'm sure you've seen the same thing is that
Speaker 1: there are just a million different ways to skin a
Speaker 1: cat when it comes to deer hunting, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen. They'll be like one guy who
Speaker 1: is a great deer hunter who will say, well, you
Speaker 1: gotta do it this way in November and you've got
Speaker 1: us at this place in this place, and then in
Speaker 1: December you have to do this, And then you'll meet
Speaker 1: some other person who's really really good too, and they
Speaker 1: might tell you the exact opposite thing, right, I mean
Speaker 1: it's that's right. Have you seen what I've seen as
Speaker 1: far as just this crazy array of different approaches to
Speaker 1: this deer hunting. Yes, And I think there's you know,
Speaker 1: there's not just a simple blanket answer for everything. And
Speaker 1: I think you know, you probably agree a lot of
Speaker 1: that has to do just based off your location of
Speaker 1: where you're hunting. You know, how I approach deer hunting
Speaker 1: and Georgia versus how I might approach a late season
Speaker 1: deer hunting Nebraska, Montana, Kansas is going to be a
Speaker 1: whole lot different. Um. So it's just not as simple
Speaker 1: as saying, here's what everybody should do this time of year. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know your food sources and uh, you know what
Speaker 1: stage of the rut you know certain states maybe in
Speaker 1: I mean that's going to determine a lot of your
Speaker 1: approach um and how you attack uh, every situation. So
Speaker 1: you know, you're hosting realtory road trips and I think
Speaker 1: you probably could speak to this better than anyone. But
Speaker 1: I've always kind of said that if you want to
Speaker 1: up your deer hunting game, the simplest, fastest way you
Speaker 1: could do it is to start traveling to deer hunt
Speaker 1: and hunt new places because it just forces you to
Speaker 1: relearn so many things to to do what you just said,
Speaker 1: which has learned all these different regional things. It just
Speaker 1: takes you out your comfort zone. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 1: I mean, has that been the case for you traveling
Speaker 1: going on all these road trips all over the country. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it definitely has. You know, how I deer hunt here
Speaker 1: the start of the season is completely different than how
Speaker 1: I hunt in Nebraska, which is where I've been for
Speaker 1: the last three or four years hunting um and so
Speaker 1: learning you know, different deers habits. Uh, you know in
Speaker 1: the Midwest versus a Southeast. Um. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: a completely different style and a totally different approach. You know,
Speaker 1: how you scout is completely different. You know, we're in Georgia.
Speaker 1: We rely a lot on trail cameras. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: food plots, you know that we've planted versus when I
Speaker 1: you know, start up in Nebraska early season. You know,
Speaker 1: we're doing a lot of glassing. That's how we find
Speaker 1: a majority of our deer um and then we kind
Speaker 1: of make a game plan and go from there with
Speaker 1: hanging stands and um, you know, getting ready for the season.
Speaker 1: So you know, definitely if you really want to increase
Speaker 1: your knowledge and you know, or even find out how
Speaker 1: much of a douney you might be too. You know,
Speaker 1: is going to some of these places. You know, you
Speaker 1: think you know a lot about your deer, uh you know,
Speaker 1: but you really get tested when you go and try
Speaker 1: other places. But to me, it's just it's fun. Um,
Speaker 1: That's that to me is what is most fun about
Speaker 1: hunting is every season visiting these different states, you learn
Speaker 1: a little bit of something different that you didn't know before. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's really the joy that I get
Speaker 1: in doing this every year. Yeah, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned how you know, you approach thems differently
Speaker 1: down in Georgia, and that kind of ties in perfectly
Speaker 1: the first scenario I wanted to run by us. So
Speaker 1: let's just jump right into this. And I think this
Speaker 1: is something that this scenario I'm gonna paint for you
Speaker 1: is something that you basically lived, I think last year
Speaker 1: to a degree. So you probably have some firsthand experience
Speaker 1: to share here. But but here's the situation. Let's say
Speaker 1: it's late July and a world class buck shows on
Speaker 1: trail camera on your home farm, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: situation that's like there's no other buck you want. He's
Speaker 1: the one, He's the only one, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: maybe a once in a at a decade opportunity, or
Speaker 1: maybe more. You know, what would you do just in
Speaker 1: the month of August. Let's say all you have is
Speaker 1: the weekends in August to get some work done, to
Speaker 1: get whatever final preparations you need to get done, whether
Speaker 1: that be habitat work or stand prep or scouting or
Speaker 1: any thing. What are the most important things you could
Speaker 1: do during those three or four weekends in August leading
Speaker 1: into this season trying to kill that one special buck.
Speaker 1: What would you do in that situation? Well, well, Mark,
Speaker 1: I feel like I don't know, you know, for for
Speaker 1: people to have seen it. The biggest deer I took
Speaker 1: was actually last year, and it was actually the exact
Speaker 1: same scenario that you just laid out. I shot my biggest,
Speaker 1: my biggest deer with a bow, the biggest deer that
Speaker 1: we've taken in Georgia, gross nine. And when we started
Speaker 1: getting those pictures, pictures late in July and August um,
Speaker 1: it was all of you know, how do we not
Speaker 1: mess this up. So um, you know, he was on
Speaker 1: camera very consistently. Um, you know, in in in Georgia,
Speaker 1: just like other places too. I mean you don't know
Speaker 1: how long they're going to stay on that pattern. So
Speaker 1: you know that really those first few days of the
Speaker 1: season are gonna be very very crucial, um, you know,
Speaker 1: to really make sure everything is done right. And so
Speaker 1: you know, we had two cameras out, multiple stands put
Speaker 1: out as well for different winds situations. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: in those weekends in August, we did a lot of
Speaker 1: you know prep and just you know, trimming limbs with
Speaker 1: those stands. We have two ladder stands up. The first
Speaker 1: first the first couple sits were you know not successful.
Speaker 1: We we blew some deer out of there. But um,
Speaker 1: you know that that and that's a problem to here
Speaker 1: is that you have a lot of light and variable
Speaker 1: winds early season, um you know here in Georgia, so
Speaker 1: you know, just trying to to play that wind um
Speaker 1: and and having stand you know, stand locations already done
Speaker 1: before the season gets here. You know that that to
Speaker 1: me is the most crucial. And just making sure you
Speaker 1: have shooting lanes as well, just that that extra trimming
Speaker 1: that you can do during the summer makes all the difference.
Speaker 1: And you know, for us, we film a lot of
Speaker 1: our hunts too, so making sure that the the other
Speaker 1: guy in the tree, um, you know, has has lanes
Speaker 1: to see through, UM is very crucial. Yeah, how did
Speaker 1: you drill down to you know, exactly where you thought
Speaker 1: you were gonna kill this buck? Was it just like you?
Speaker 1: He showed up on one of your cameras and he
Speaker 1: kept showing there and so you just knew, well, this
Speaker 1: is the spot or did you have to you know,
Speaker 1: cast a wider net with cameras to kind of figure
Speaker 1: out where he was the most? Like how did you
Speaker 1: zero in? Yes? So he was he was first coming
Speaker 1: uh to this to this field we had planted in
Speaker 1: clover and chickery. That was where we first got the
Speaker 1: first couple of weeks of pictures of him. Um. And
Speaker 1: then you know, as it started getting closer to the season,
Speaker 1: the deer was getting less and less frequent on this
Speaker 1: on this camera, and so you know, we we decided
Speaker 1: that that we're going to try a couple of different
Speaker 1: cameras and putting them out kind of where these where
Speaker 1: we assumed some of these deer were betting, and you
Speaker 1: know we're going up the hill near the betting location, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, but not getting too close, trying to still
Speaker 1: keep some distance between you know, where the deer were
Speaker 1: bettered to where the cameras were. Uh and then you know,
Speaker 1: flow and behold. You know, he started getting on a
Speaker 1: very regular pattern and we didn't. And I think another
Speaker 1: key for that deer in particular was just not going
Speaker 1: in there too much, you know, you said, using the weekends,
Speaker 1: you know, we tried to make sure there was enough
Speaker 1: feed down because you can legally bait here in Georgia
Speaker 1: from where the deer was being seen. Um, and you know,
Speaker 1: trying to make make it a minimum of every five
Speaker 1: or six days before we you know, made it another
Speaker 1: appearance um in the woods where this deer was was
Speaker 1: coming to. So um, not going in there too much,
Speaker 1: you know, finding getting somewhere a little bit off the
Speaker 1: beaten path, um, you know, was was critical and kind
Speaker 1: of determining. And you know, and a deer like this,
Speaker 1: I mean it just kind of flipped the switch. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just moving up there and trying something different.
Speaker 1: He started getting on a pattern just regular every day,
Speaker 1: just felt very comfortable and I think that's just because
Speaker 1: the woods that time of year are so thick. He
Speaker 1: felt safe in there. Um. You know, for anybody that's
Speaker 1: seen the episode, you can tell you can't see really
Speaker 1: past forty or fifty yards, you know where my ladder
Speaker 1: stam was hung. So, um, you know, it just felt
Speaker 1: like a really safe spot to him. Yeah. So here's
Speaker 1: another scenario that I think it ties very closely to
Speaker 1: what actually happened with that dear. But it's also a
Speaker 1: thing like I've encountered a number of times over the years,
Speaker 1: and I always debate it. So the situation is this,
Speaker 1: You're getting daylight trail camera's cherio camp pictures of the
Speaker 1: buck you're after, just like you were in those days
Speaker 1: leading up to the opener. The problem is opening day
Speaker 1: is now, you know, let's say it's tomorrow in the forecast,
Speaker 1: and you can see what opening day looks like, and
Speaker 1: you can see what the next one to three days
Speaker 1: after that looks like, and you've got horrible conditions. It's hot,
Speaker 1: maybe the winds kind of subpar, and you're sitting here thinking.
Speaker 1: At least you know, for me in Michigan, when I'm
Speaker 1: haunting looking at opening Day, I know that first day
Speaker 1: is such a great opportunity because they have haven't been hunted,
Speaker 1: and the next day might be pretty good. But those
Speaker 1: first two days, so many of the people in the
Speaker 1: area start hunting to that Usually my daylight activity peters
Speaker 1: out pretty quick, so I know those first few days
Speaker 1: are usually a great, great chance. So the question is this,
Speaker 1: do you hunt opening day regardless of the bad conditions
Speaker 1: because it's it's still opening day and it's still like
Speaker 1: a great opportunity. Or do you stay out because you
Speaker 1: don't want to mess things up on those poor conditions
Speaker 1: and just hope that they'll stick around and stay daylight
Speaker 1: despite the possibility of neighboring pressure. What would you do
Speaker 1: in that situation? So I'll answer this, but I didn't
Speaker 1: end up taking my own advice. So on this dear,
Speaker 1: it was exactly that scenario. Um, you know, we we did,
Speaker 1: you know, have some neighbors. I'm sure they were getting
Speaker 1: pictures of this dear. Uh. You know, I even had
Speaker 1: somebody late season the year before have pictures of this buck,
Speaker 1: so I knew he was a roamer. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: but that opening day, the wind was not good. You know,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of predominant east wind here early
Speaker 1: season in Georgia, which is honestly for any of our stands,
Speaker 1: and you know, the way our land kind of lays out,
Speaker 1: it's it's not a good win to go and sit.
Speaker 1: But I ended up, you know, going to try it
Speaker 1: because the deer was just that regular, and I was
Speaker 1: so worried that once he got off that summer pattern, uh,
Speaker 1: that maybe we never see him again, because the year before,
Speaker 1: the last picture we had of this year was September
Speaker 1: twenty nine, and then we never saw him for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season our property. Um, so I was
Speaker 1: a little concerned that, you know, our our time was
Speaker 1: kind of it was very critical, you know, in order
Speaker 1: to order to get it done. Uh, you know, we
Speaker 1: needed we needed it needed to happen pretty quick. So
Speaker 1: I went in there that first afternoon. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we had some dear blow and and get out of there,
Speaker 1: and so I said, look, I'm not going back in
Speaker 1: there until the conditions are just right. I think that
Speaker 1: the opener last year was on September twelve, and I
Speaker 1: waited another i think eleven days until I got back
Speaker 1: in there when we had a we finally got a
Speaker 1: north wind and the deer. I think it took the deer.
Speaker 1: You know, when we had some of those deer blow
Speaker 1: in there. It took some of those deer another four
Speaker 1: or five days just to get regular and comfortable again. UM.
Speaker 1: Kind of going back to that same strategy that we
Speaker 1: had in August of you know, not going in there
Speaker 1: but every you know, five or six days and and
Speaker 1: just trying to leave it alone. UM. You know. So
Speaker 1: I had to wait another eleven days, which was really painful.
Speaker 1: But I think after seeing that happen on opening day,
Speaker 1: even though like you said, it is you know, the
Speaker 1: best chance to to possibly get it done. And you
Speaker 1: just see that deer coming in you know, morning and
Speaker 1: in the evening. Um, in the daylight, it's tough to
Speaker 1: it's tough to resist. UM. But I cannot. But I
Speaker 1: can honestly say I wish and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: but some of the wind here it can be so
Speaker 1: it doesn't blow just hard one direction. So I was like, man,
Speaker 1: you know, no matter what, you know, am I going
Speaker 1: to get a strong enough win, um for it to
Speaker 1: even really matter an a way. But UM, and that
Speaker 1: in that situation, if I had just waited until the
Speaker 1: time and it was just right, maybe it could have
Speaker 1: played out even better. Um. So you know, it's really
Speaker 1: tough to say. I mean, i'd like to think I
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it again, but you just never know, like
Speaker 1: if it if it wasn't just the right situation there
Speaker 1: on September, um, I'm not sure if I would have
Speaker 1: had that opportunity um at that day or so. But
Speaker 1: I think, you know, going forward, I'd like to maybe
Speaker 1: leave it, leave it alone as much as possible until
Speaker 1: it's just right. It seems like that's that's usually the
Speaker 1: safer Betton and I always have been the same camp
Speaker 1: as you, where I've always said that, like in my head,
Speaker 1: I always think, oh, yeah, you should, you should wait
Speaker 1: it out, you should be careful. But every time Opening
Speaker 1: Night comes through, somehow I'm I convinced myself, I you
Speaker 1: still got to be out there? Is that for one time?
Speaker 1: So one time, Tyler, I convinced myself that, no, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna hunt Opening Night. It's too warm. It's just great.
Speaker 1: And tomorrow, the second day of this season, a cold
Speaker 1: front hit. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be strong, I'm gonna stick to my guns. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do the smart thing, I won't hunt the first night
Speaker 1: because tomorrow will be so good. But what I did
Speaker 1: is I sat on a hill like three yards away
Speaker 1: and was gonna glass the area. I thought I'd do
Speaker 1: a little extra scouting, and of course I saw my
Speaker 1: target buck walk twenty yards away from the tree stand.
Speaker 1: I would have hunted on opening night. So the one
Speaker 1: the one time I did the thing you're supposed to do,
Speaker 1: it didn't work out. But and that's just the thing.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just so tough. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, you just never know. And like I was
Speaker 1: doing the same thing, you know, the night before the season,
Speaker 1: I was like, what do I do? And then I
Speaker 1: looked at the forecast for the next ten days and
Speaker 1: we had predominantly east wind the whole time, east southeast,
Speaker 1: which is the worst win you could have. So I said,
Speaker 1: you know, if if I'm gonna try it, maybe go
Speaker 1: ahead and try it early and then hopefully I can
Speaker 1: you know, recover if if things don't go according to plan,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I can give it some time and
Speaker 1: in that area, will you know, the uh, just not
Speaker 1: put any pressure in there for a while until things
Speaker 1: are just right. And so you know, Luckily it worked
Speaker 1: out in that deer. Um. I think it took us
Speaker 1: four days to have that deer showback up on camera,
Speaker 1: you know, and he that's a deer that was regular
Speaker 1: every single day from the end of July until the
Speaker 1: start of the season. So Um, luckily that he felt
Speaker 1: comfortable enough to come back. But you know, sometimes they don't.
Speaker 1: And that's just the risk you take. Yeah, keeps us
Speaker 1: coming back again, right, keeps us coming back. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not always easy too. That's just that's part of
Speaker 1: the game you play. Yeah, all right, here's another one.
Speaker 1: Let's let's imagine that unfortunately for you, you lose access
Speaker 1: to this Nebraska spot you've been hunting recently, but you
Speaker 1: still want to go out to that region. Let's say
Speaker 1: you know, it could be Nebraska or one of these
Speaker 1: you know, western Great Plain states or Midwest you know, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska,
Speaker 1: South Dakota, something like that, and you decide that since
Speaker 1: you don't have your old spot, you're gonna take up
Speaker 1: A buddy who had a long time ago said hey,
Speaker 1: you can come hunt my family property anytime. So you said, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pinch, I'm gonna go hunt my friends property.
Speaker 1: You've never been there before, though, so you're gonna show
Speaker 1: up day one. It's you know, the season is open,
Speaker 1: it's mid September, let's say, and you're showing up to
Speaker 1: see this place for the very first time. You you
Speaker 1: weren't able to get there in the summer to scout
Speaker 1: or anything, so you you have no knowledge. All you
Speaker 1: know is that your buddy has said, Hey, this is
Speaker 1: these are the property lines. You've got free rain, there's
Speaker 1: deer here. What would you do on day one of
Speaker 1: this hunt? Would you start hunting right away? Would you scout?
Speaker 1: Would you hang cameras? What does that first day look
Speaker 1: like on this brand new place? Yeah? I think the
Speaker 1: first day I'm gonna ask is where's the food? Um?
Speaker 1: You know that's kind of when whenever I hunt out
Speaker 1: in that part of the country, is you know, where's
Speaker 1: the food at? Another thing I might do, and this
Speaker 1: is proven to be successful for us out there in
Speaker 1: that part of the country, but is to find, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever trees that are available on some of these uh
Speaker 1: maybe deer trails and just seeing you know, some of
Speaker 1: the some of the routesies deer taken you know to
Speaker 1: and from. Uh you know if it's alfalfa that time
Speaker 1: of year, I know that's you know, really popular for
Speaker 1: us in our region of Nebraska in Montana. UM. But
Speaker 1: you know those would be my my number, that would
Speaker 1: be my one and two things. As where as the
Speaker 1: food um, and where can I get a trail camera at?
Speaker 1: It may not tell you the full picture? And then uh,
Speaker 1: you know, especially in Montana, and is the exact same
Speaker 1: way as is there anywhere I can get advantage point
Speaker 1: where I can get go glass from you know, glassing
Speaker 1: a lot of these places in Nebraska and in the
Speaker 1: Milk River where I have a lot of I've spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time over the years, can really tell
Speaker 1: you a lot more so than even a trail camera can. UM.
Speaker 1: So if there's anywhere that I can get and sit
Speaker 1: far enough off that where I don't disturb anything or
Speaker 1: mess it up, um you know, and then maybe after
Speaker 1: a day or two of doing that, then maybe you
Speaker 1: start you know, game planning um or maybe some word
Speaker 1: to hang a stand and um, you know that could
Speaker 1: be another option too, is you know sometimes um, you know,
Speaker 1: when I first started hunting this this region of Nebraska,
Speaker 1: was getting in a tree stand where you're close, but
Speaker 1: you're not close enough to where you're gonna go in
Speaker 1: there maybe mess it up. I didn't really expect to
Speaker 1: go in there and be successful, but it did tell
Speaker 1: me a lot about the deer's habits. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe what trails and routes they were taking to the
Speaker 1: alf alfa in the evening so, um, you know that
Speaker 1: time of year, it's it's really tough to hunt in
Speaker 1: the mornings at least where I'm at um, So I
Speaker 1: would definitely you know, stay off that and and hunt
Speaker 1: primarily in the evenings. Um, just a little bit of
Speaker 1: a safer bed if you're gonna be there for a while. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so glassing, you know that first morning sounds like
Speaker 1: that you mentioned wanting to you know, find those trails
Speaker 1: and the trees that they're passing through, possibly putting those
Speaker 1: cameras up. Is that something you'd be you know, cruising
Speaker 1: around midday that first day doing that? And would you
Speaker 1: be on foot to scout? Would you drive in a truck,
Speaker 1: would you take a bike or four wheel or something like?
Speaker 1: How would you what would be this the way you'd
Speaker 1: want to do that kind of preliminary day one scouting?
Speaker 1: How would you do that usually. Yeah. So I know
Speaker 1: what I've done in the in the past is we
Speaker 1: have these these bikes that we take just an electric
Speaker 1: bike and um, I have a little car that I
Speaker 1: can you know, put my cameras on and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, not try to ride anything that's gonna be
Speaker 1: too loud. And you know those bikes are pretty stealthy. Um.
Speaker 1: So you know, using that to to try and go
Speaker 1: and find as many places or if you find a
Speaker 1: water hole or um, you know, different different trails. Um.
Speaker 1: You know. The only problem is it's like there's just
Speaker 1: sometimes not a ton of trees, like you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: you gotta get a little creative and maybe maybe even
Speaker 1: find like a a stick or you know, something you
Speaker 1: can stick on the ground and tie camera on too,
Speaker 1: u you know, to see you know where some of
Speaker 1: these deer maybe coming. I've had to do that many times. Um. Um.
Speaker 1: So you know that that first day is is uh
Speaker 1: that I'd be doing a lot of that, just trying
Speaker 1: to get around there as quietly as possible, and you know,
Speaker 1: um doing that mostly you know, during the middle of
Speaker 1: the day, you know, not the first thing in the morning.
Speaker 1: I'd say, you know, early season, anywhere between you know,
Speaker 1: ten and maybe one or two o'clock. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: that'd be the time to go scouting glass. What what's
Speaker 1: the bike you're using these days? I'm actually finally I
Speaker 1: finally decided I need to get me one of these.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to get some intel from folks to
Speaker 1: see what they like the most. What's uh, what's your
Speaker 1: take on that? So we're actually sponsored by back Who
Speaker 1: Bikes and so back Who. I mean they they've been
Speaker 1: great too, and um, you know even for the Georgia dear. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't like riding anything just too loud
Speaker 1: and it it's it's crazy that you know you're able
Speaker 1: to cover as much ground and you know, I mean
Speaker 1: we and even turkey hunting to we run those things
Speaker 1: all day long. Um. You know, I have the mule
Speaker 1: Elite Electric Byte from Backou and Um, you're able to
Speaker 1: cover a lot of ground in those and you know
Speaker 1: you really feel like you're it's probably the safest way
Speaker 1: to go undetected. Um, at least for me, I've I've
Speaker 1: found a I found that better than you know, leaving
Speaker 1: my scent, you know, by walking and doing it that way.
Speaker 1: I just I feel like you know, the safer you
Speaker 1: can be the better. Yeah, they just seem to be
Speaker 1: so much more forgiving of wheeled access to Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's been nice to have. My next question is
Speaker 1: this same scenario, same exact scenario, same exact question, except
Speaker 1: let's chee is the date from mid September to now November?
Speaker 1: Would would your day one be different now that you're
Speaker 1: showing up brand new on this place in November? Anything different? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, probably probably something different. Um,
Speaker 1: definitely bring a grunt call and rattling horns. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: and maybe some of those places that you did have
Speaker 1: a tree stand hung if you were just trying to
Speaker 1: go get inventory. Um and we're talking about bow hunting right, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I would say, you know, definitely definitely get
Speaker 1: somewhere where you can get maybe even a little bit
Speaker 1: closer to the action. Um, you know, just in case,
Speaker 1: and you know, a grunt call that timing year has
Speaker 1: been proven deadly. Um. You know, so rattling horns. We
Speaker 1: rattled up so many deer um even that first second
Speaker 1: week in November. Um, it can it can just be
Speaker 1: starting to get really good. And you know another thing
Speaker 1: we've been and two and is uh those Dave Smith decoys,
Speaker 1: they've been they've been great to have. I'm not afraid,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe in Georgia, I wouldn't be wouldn't be
Speaker 1: uh maybe willing to do that or as lucky, um,
Speaker 1: you know, but I've I've had several successful hunts and
Speaker 1: you know, different people we've bought out there over the years. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's been a good strategy as well.
Speaker 1: I mean there's if there's a dominant buck in in
Speaker 1: the alfalfa field or if he can see it. You know,
Speaker 1: I've had some of them see that decoy and come
Speaker 1: in from two hundred plush yards, um, just to come
Speaker 1: not that thing over. That's so awesome to see. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fun. It really is fun. You know. We don't
Speaker 1: we don't get a whole lot of that, you know,
Speaker 1: down here. I don't. I don't really know what it is.
Speaker 1: But the bucks, at least on our property here in
Speaker 1: Georgia are just not quite as aggressive maybe toward a decoy.
Speaker 1: There may be a little bit more weary, um, you know,
Speaker 1: of just succumbing to that. So but it's something when
Speaker 1: you get up there and it works, it's pretty fun side,
Speaker 1: even even if you haven't, you know, work on deer
Speaker 1: that are not quote unquote shooters. Um, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's been proven to be a successful tactic entertaining. If
Speaker 1: nothing else that is that makes for good video. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet so. Here here's a very different scenario to consider.
Speaker 1: Let's say you have a shared property with a group
Speaker 1: of hunting buddies. I don't know if it's maybe well,
Speaker 1: let's just say it's like you all share it. So
Speaker 1: maybe it's the least or it's a place you all
Speaker 1: got permission together, or it's a friends you've all pitched
Speaker 1: in throughout the year, you know, to do some prep
Speaker 1: on the farm, and maybe you guys did a little
Speaker 1: bit of habit at work. You all met up and
Speaker 1: put up cameras in the summer, hung trail, tree stands, whatever.
Speaker 1: Now it's the night before your hunt begins, and you're
Speaker 1: sitting in the kitchen and you're having that last beer
Speaker 1: or the night or something like that, and one guy says,
Speaker 1: all right, well where are we gonna sit? So my
Speaker 1: question for you, tyler, is how do you recommend when
Speaker 1: hunting with a group of friends? How do you recommend
Speaker 1: fairly determining how stand sides are picked, like who gets
Speaker 1: to pick where they want, how they you know, how
Speaker 1: do you divvy that up? That just seems like one
Speaker 1: of those things that can be a challenge sometimes because
Speaker 1: maybe everybody wants to hunt the one really great funnel.
Speaker 1: How do you do that in a fair equitable way
Speaker 1: and share a place? Dane, That's a good that's a
Speaker 1: really good question. Um, I don't know, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I've always been Uh, this is not really gonna answer
Speaker 1: your question, but you know, and and yes, I've I've
Speaker 1: been fortunate, you know to go and and and do
Speaker 1: a lot of really cool hunts and different experiences. But um,
Speaker 1: you know what what we try to what I try
Speaker 1: to do is just maybe pick a name out of
Speaker 1: a hat or something. I mean, as as silly as
Speaker 1: that may sound, you know, especially between you know, the
Speaker 1: different people that hunt on the farm. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: a lot of people want to go to one place
Speaker 1: and there's really just no fair way to do it.
Speaker 1: You know. You may have that buddy though that's maybe
Speaker 1: put in more works up more work than the others.
Speaker 1: And we've definitely had have had that too. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'd say they get the first right of refusal on
Speaker 1: maybe some of that. But um, you know, there's there's
Speaker 1: a there's not a whole lot of ways to to
Speaker 1: fairly do that without maybe getting somebody upset. But I'd
Speaker 1: say for the people that are that are there that
Speaker 1: have some sweat equity um into some of the prep
Speaker 1: work that goes on, I would I say should receive
Speaker 1: received first right because you know, as far as like
Speaker 1: a hunt club or if you have a piece of
Speaker 1: land you're hunting with your buddies, there's always going to
Speaker 1: be those people that may be put in a little
Speaker 1: bit more work than the others. Um So that that
Speaker 1: that would that would be maybe my best guests on
Speaker 1: what to do. And then you know you may have
Speaker 1: different um sections of the hunt club that it's you
Speaker 1: know section offer each individual. You know, maybe you have
Speaker 1: pieces of that property where you know that that's that's
Speaker 1: the airs. Yeah, well do that. No, there's not um
Speaker 1: what are some I mean is that is like the
Speaker 1: random name picking out a hat what you've seen on
Speaker 1: a live of your hunts, Because I feel like you've
Speaker 1: been on so many hunts of the years where there's
Speaker 1: like there's always a big crew there's a crew of
Speaker 1: you guys all out there hunting this farm or this place,
Speaker 1: and you're all hunting different areas. I always wonder, like,
Speaker 1: how do they settle on who's gonna hunt where? Um,
Speaker 1: is it something like that you guys usually do, or
Speaker 1: is it sometimes like widel is just gonna call it
Speaker 1: and you guys just live with it, know how to go,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, you know, I know I keep
Speaker 1: mentioning Nebraska, but that's somewhere where we've had big camps
Speaker 1: and the Milk River has kind of be in the
Speaker 1: same way. You know, if if some anywhere to say,
Speaker 1: you know, get maybe eyes on a deer and say, man,
Speaker 1: I really like that deer. So I mean you want
Speaker 1: to go hunt that deer, we'll I mean we'll feel free,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll try to go help you hang to
Speaker 1: stand or um, you know, help you get something set up,
Speaker 1: and um, you know that. I guess if that person
Speaker 1: wants to call Dibbs, that's that's completely fine. You know.
Speaker 1: I don't get too territorial on any of these deer.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people in our group
Speaker 1: are the same way. Um, you know, I just want
Speaker 1: everybody to have a good time. Um. So that's that's
Speaker 1: something that I've I've kind of preached. It is just
Speaker 1: you know, if if somebody has a particular area or
Speaker 1: if they went in glass to spot that they really
Speaker 1: like and they called DIBs on it first and by
Speaker 1: all means go for it. Um. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: how we go about it. You know, we don't really
Speaker 1: designate somebody just to one particular spot. We kind of
Speaker 1: you know, like the good thing about Nebraska where we go,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have three or four days, got there and
Speaker 1: glass and scout and hang stands before and um, you know,
Speaker 1: if there's somebody that says, man, I of this particular
Speaker 1: area and that's yours. If you want it, that's yours.
Speaker 1: So um, that's kind of how we go about doing
Speaker 1: it out there. Yeah. Well, it's it's good to This
Speaker 1: comes back to a decision prior to the hunt itself,
Speaker 1: which is when choosing who you're hunting. Buddies are and
Speaker 1: I think it's important to choose the right group and
Speaker 1: be you know, have the right relationships so that you're
Speaker 1: in a situation where that kind of thing works and
Speaker 1: you guys are rooting for each other and it's not,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's not controversial or combative and people
Speaker 1: are pissed at each other for taking this spot or
Speaker 1: that spot. I mean that that's a recipe for disaster. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We all pull for each other, you know, we all
Speaker 1: we all pull for each other. Man. It's it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a big deer for whatever reason. And you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like I have a pretty good perspective on it.
Speaker 1: It can ruin a relationship, it can ruin a friendship.
Speaker 1: But you know that's just not how our group roles. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, the people we have in camp, you know,
Speaker 1: we're there for the experience, the hunt. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: trying to get close to these white tails a challenge
Speaker 1: enough in itself, um, you know, so you know we don't.
Speaker 1: We try not to let gred you know, play a
Speaker 1: factor in it. Um, and just you know, do it
Speaker 1: for the do it for the right reasons. But you
Speaker 1: know for that that isn't that does play out in
Speaker 1: some cases that we've been lucky for the most part.
Speaker 1: That's good. All right. Here's another one for Tyler. You
Speaker 1: are sitting in the tree and you get into the
Speaker 1: last hour of daylight of an evening hunt. You hear
Speaker 1: the crunch, crunch, crunch. You look off in the distance
Speaker 1: and you see uh picket fence come in your way,
Speaker 1: and you very quickly realize that this is a buck
Speaker 1: that will make your Georgia buck look like a chump.
Speaker 1: You realize this is the biggest buck you will probably
Speaker 1: ever see in your life. He's well over two inches,
Speaker 1: he's got I don't know, double draft times. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a dream, dear, and he's headed your way, and
Speaker 1: you're realizing, oh, why I'm going to get a shot
Speaker 1: at this buck? What do you do in the following
Speaker 1: seconds or minutes to collect yourself, calm yourself mentally, prepare
Speaker 1: yourself to get this shot? What you know? What's what's
Speaker 1: inside in between your ears? Tyler? Because I think one thing,
Speaker 1: that one thing that stands out about you compared to
Speaker 1: a whole lot of folks, I think is that you
Speaker 1: have You're in a position every year to see a
Speaker 1: whole lot of big deer and to shoot a lot
Speaker 1: of deer every year. So you you've you've gone through
Speaker 1: this way more times than I have. I'm sure what
Speaker 1: is your secret sauce to being able to execute in
Speaker 1: that moment? That's a great question. Um. You know what
Speaker 1: what I've tried to do is that once I get
Speaker 1: eyes on a deer like that, maybe a deer that
Speaker 1: I don't don't don't know, um, even if it's a
Speaker 1: deer I do know, I just try to go to
Speaker 1: another place. This is gonna sound silly to some people,
Speaker 1: but I found that the best way to calm myself
Speaker 1: down is to not really look at that deer again,
Speaker 1: not look at his rack again. Um. You know, obviously
Speaker 1: you know, prep for the shot, um, and hopefully I've
Speaker 1: done some of that work, you know, before the deer
Speaker 1: is coming in there of knowing you know, where I'd
Speaker 1: like to shoot this deer. I have all my spots
Speaker 1: ranged in advance. But I try to just not think
Speaker 1: about anything that's going on in the moment um, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to just get my mind as far away from
Speaker 1: that as possible, because I think if I think where
Speaker 1: people can mess up, as you know, if that starts
Speaker 1: going through my mind, like, man, this could be the
Speaker 1: biggest deer in my life. You know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to best this moment up. Um. You know. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: like a baseball player, you know, going to the plate.
Speaker 1: You know, you you you go up there and just
Speaker 1: execute um and just you know, thinking about as little
Speaker 1: as possible. Um. You know you don't want that added
Speaker 1: pressure of trying to execute that shot. Um. You know
Speaker 1: you've practiced, you know, you've you've you're ready to this moment.
Speaker 1: So UM, you know. I try to I try to
Speaker 1: let my mind go elsewhere. You know where elsewhere is?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It can it can range from a
Speaker 1: lot of different things. You know, work, I have to
Speaker 1: do it in the house, or uh, you know, thinking
Speaker 1: about an email I need to respond to or something.
Speaker 1: I mean, just trying to do is as much as
Speaker 1: I can not to let the moment get the better
Speaker 1: of me. I like that. Now what about you know,
Speaker 1: is there any like your shot prices itself and now
Speaker 1: that bucks getting into range? I'm curious what does your
Speaker 1: Do you have a a mantra? Do you have anything
Speaker 1: you say in your head as you're drawing back or
Speaker 1: as you aim, or anything to try to stay in
Speaker 1: that to stay in that moment or do you prefer
Speaker 1: to stay out of the moment completely and kind of
Speaker 1: be an autopilot? Yeah? I think what I think what
Speaker 1: I try to do there, and it is to be
Speaker 1: really confident, not overconfident, but I kind of tell like
Speaker 1: something I always tell myself is, man, you're gonna smoke
Speaker 1: this dear, like you're going you're gonna make a great shot. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, when when you draw back and you know
Speaker 1: you're on a deer of any size or caliber, you know,
Speaker 1: you can get shaky, a little nervous. But I try to,
Speaker 1: let you know, tell myself over and over like, man,
Speaker 1: you're gonna put it behind his shoulder and drill this deer, um,
Speaker 1: you know, just make it, make a great shot. And
Speaker 1: I found that when I go in there with that
Speaker 1: mentality instead of being nervous or you know, just want
Speaker 1: to keep the buck fever as far away as possible
Speaker 1: and keeping that that kind of don't give a crap
Speaker 1: attitude of you know, letting, you know, letting the moment
Speaker 1: overtake me. Um, and just you know, going in there
Speaker 1: kind of with a force. Is is kind of why
Speaker 1: I found to work for me at least and then
Speaker 1: and then let the butt fever creep in after the
Speaker 1: shot is executed, hopefully, Yeah, that's the right time to
Speaker 1: feel it. Yeah. Now, now here's here's the doozy. Let's
Speaker 1: let's imagine the situation happens. It's November, We'll say, but
Speaker 1: you miss him? Yeah? What do you do after a
Speaker 1: miss on a November hunt like that? Are you? Are
Speaker 1: you the type who can just stick it out and
Speaker 1: stay out there and just like the best way to
Speaker 1: get this off your back is to shoot another one
Speaker 1: today or do you you know, pull out, go back
Speaker 1: to camp, shoot your bowl, build your confidence back up again. Um,
Speaker 1: what are you physically doing and then what are you
Speaker 1: mentally doing to to get your head read again after
Speaker 1: something like that? Yeah, Um, that's a great question. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I think after a miss, you know, going
Speaker 1: back and and figuring out what exactly happened. Um, But
Speaker 1: what I like to do is is to go back
Speaker 1: to camp, you know, and I'm I'm fine sending it
Speaker 1: out you know for the rest of the hunt and
Speaker 1: not letting that get me down too much because mr
Speaker 1: has just happened. Bow Hunting is really hard, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: so going back and trying to get you know, ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen shots, making sure my equipments on um, and
Speaker 1: just getting my confidence back that way, ums, is probably
Speaker 1: the best thing you know for me to do. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't be repetition. Um. You know it's
Speaker 1: like you know, falling off a bite, getting back on. Um.
Speaker 1: You just gotta get back out there and do it.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody, you know, baseball player, you strike out,
Speaker 1: but you're next to back. You know, you've got to
Speaker 1: go out there and make it count again. UM. So
Speaker 1: I try not to let it get get me down
Speaker 1: too much. I think when I was younger, I did
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. You know, it doesn't feel good
Speaker 1: to have a swing and a miss. But you know,
Speaker 1: if you do this thing long enough, reality is it
Speaker 1: just happens. You just gotta keep keep positive and keep
Speaker 1: moving on. We've all been there too many times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, So let's let's step back from the shooting
Speaker 1: and get back to another hunt thing. And let's say
Speaker 1: this is like a like a late October hunt, and
Speaker 1: you're back in the southeast. Maybe this is a home
Speaker 1: farm Georgia hunt. Maybe this is somewhere else you guys
Speaker 1: are poking around down there in the southeast. But let's
Speaker 1: call this kind of a mixed timber and egg kind
Speaker 1: of diverse habitat. And a small cold front pushes through
Speaker 1: the day before. So let's say I don't know Let's
Speaker 1: say it's cold front coming through on October and you're
Speaker 1: thinking about hunting the next day, and that coal front
Speaker 1: pushes through and you get your first daylight trail camera
Speaker 1: picture of a mature buck in this area. It's about
Speaker 1: twenty minutes before dark on like a small food source,
Speaker 1: like a little hidy hole food plotter, corner of a field,
Speaker 1: something like that. Okay, because the first time he's been
Speaker 1: daylight this season. Now, in most situations, at least for myself,
Speaker 1: I'd be very excited about that, and I'd be thinking
Speaker 1: about getting right back into that next night. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. The wind is going to shift degree is
Speaker 1: the next day. Let's say it was a west wind
Speaker 1: when that cold front hit, and he showed up tomorrow,
Speaker 1: everything's the same, but the wind is a complete shift
Speaker 1: and now it's an east wind. Do you hunt that
Speaker 1: spot the next evening, giving that he was daylight or
Speaker 1: does that shift in wind direction? Were you enough to
Speaker 1: to not do that and instead of do something different? Yeah,
Speaker 1: if if the wind was bad, I'd likely go in
Speaker 1: there and do something different, especially if you know where
Speaker 1: he was on trail camera is going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: dead down wind. Then you know, I'd like to try
Speaker 1: and do something else I think, Um, I still wouldn't
Speaker 1: be afraid to go in there. Hopefully I have another
Speaker 1: stand uh set up, and if I don't, you know,
Speaker 1: wouldn't be afraid to go in there sometime, um, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe during the middle of the day and get up
Speaker 1: another another stand. Um. You know. For for me, anywhere
Speaker 1: between that October till about November six or seven, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be in a tree as much as possible,
Speaker 1: and like you said, he's daylight for the first time.
Speaker 1: Um so, and also not afraid to go in there
Speaker 1: and do a hanging hunt you know for the right wind.
Speaker 1: Um that's on that's that's uh, that's close to that dear. Um.
Speaker 1: You know this this, if there's a this probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: work for that scenario. But if you know, if you
Speaker 1: had a a ground blind where you could go in
Speaker 1: there and uh you know enclose your sin in for
Speaker 1: bo r gun Uh you know something that's hard show. Um.
Speaker 1: You know we use that a lot here, um, just
Speaker 1: because you know, the wind can be screwy a lot.
Speaker 1: So you know, if there is a situation like that
Speaker 1: where I can use a ground blind, UM to my advantage.
Speaker 1: I'll do that as well. Okay, So that brings to
Speaker 1: mind another scenario that I was going to run by you,
Speaker 1: and it's something I've encountered. Uh specifically, there's one spot
Speaker 1: that really kills me that's like this, and I've seen
Speaker 1: similar in other places in the Midwest. Um, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit similar to what we just discussed. But here's
Speaker 1: here's a situation. We're in November. Now, you're somewhere in
Speaker 1: the Middle West, and you discover just an absolute sweet spot.
Speaker 1: It's deep in the cover, but you can tell like
Speaker 1: this is the spot. Within the spot. Within the spot,
Speaker 1: there's a little creek crossing with bedding all around, and
Speaker 1: from afar you have seen numerous shoar bucks all cross
Speaker 1: right here. They all come through this bedding area, they
Speaker 1: all cross right here. It's it's the spot. The problem
Speaker 1: is that it's a very high deer density area and
Speaker 1: there's just deer all around it. And as you sit
Speaker 1: there on the outside looking in, you're thinking, man, how
Speaker 1: could I ever hunt right inside there where all these
Speaker 1: deer crossed by, without these forty doughs that are always
Speaker 1: coming in and out of here, winding me and blowing
Speaker 1: the whole thing. What do you do in that situation?
Speaker 1: Do you hunt down right in that spot, knowing there's
Speaker 1: the risk and just hoping that you can pull it off.
Speaker 1: I've heard you say spray and pray in the past,
Speaker 1: So would you spray and pray in a situation like
Speaker 1: that or would you say it's just too risky and
Speaker 1: you gotta hunt off of that somewhere else? No? I would,
Speaker 1: I would, You know, I do spray and pray some,
Speaker 1: but you know, if if the density is that high,
Speaker 1: you know, with deer in a particular area, I don't know,
Speaker 1: if there's you know, the amount of the amount of
Speaker 1: scent covering the world, um, that could cover up your
Speaker 1: scent good enough. So you know, no, I would. I
Speaker 1: would try to hunt off of there a little bit, um,
Speaker 1: you know, if they are going to a spot in
Speaker 1: the field where I can get a stand, uh hung
Speaker 1: close to that area and just give myself a little
Speaker 1: bit of breathing room, especially to start off, you know,
Speaker 1: not saying I wouldn't go in there and try that
Speaker 1: situation maybe later on or um, if I didn't have
Speaker 1: a whole lot of time in the hunt, But I
Speaker 1: would say, right off the bat to get right on
Speaker 1: top of them and wrist blowing the whole thing would
Speaker 1: probably play it safe, go back to the play and
Speaker 1: safe mentality that I should have listened to a year ago.
Speaker 1: So that's that's probably where what I do in that
Speaker 1: situation was to start off. Yeah, So in my example
Speaker 1: where I had something like this, I had I had
Speaker 1: an area like this I knew about. I finally had
Speaker 1: access that I could hunt deep in there finally, and
Speaker 1: and I kind of had the same thought you did.
Speaker 1: I was I was worried to go in there too soon,
Speaker 1: So I kept trying to play the edges and I
Speaker 1: hope I can make it happen, and and finally got
Speaker 1: got towards the end of the time I had left,
Speaker 1: and I finally thought, man, I just had to throw
Speaker 1: caution to the wind. I'm gonna get one chance. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna try it. I'm gonna swing for the fences.
Speaker 1: And so I snuck in here. I walked the creek
Speaker 1: all the way into this bedding are deep in there,
Speaker 1: well before daylight. It was like November five or six
Speaker 1: or something like that. And I hang a new set
Speaker 1: in this tree right in the edge of the creek
Speaker 1: and I picked a day where the wind actually blew
Speaker 1: down along with the creek, so I thought that was
Speaker 1: my best chance if there was anything that might let
Speaker 1: me get away with something to be if my wind
Speaker 1: was in the water, and I took my shot right
Speaker 1: and sure enough my shooter buck up been after comes through.
Speaker 1: But he comes through like ten minutes before daylight, and
Speaker 1: I have to watch him go past me in the dark.
Speaker 1: But I can see him and then go down windo
Speaker 1: me and win me and spook out of that. So
Speaker 1: I could have shot him if it was like fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes later. He did exactly what I needed to, but
Speaker 1: he just came too early. So yeah, yeah, that unfortunately
Speaker 1: can happen. I think what I found, and then you know,
Speaker 1: in the Midwest we use a lot of that style
Speaker 1: of home is. You know, playing it saved the first
Speaker 1: few days, you can learn a lot those first couple
Speaker 1: of sets, those first two or three cents and a stand,
Speaker 1: and you know, you think you know where the deer
Speaker 1: funneling out of a lot, but then you know, if
Speaker 1: you were to get down somewhere and get a little
Speaker 1: bit further off that crossing where those deer coming to,
Speaker 1: you know, you get away better lay of the land
Speaker 1: and go, oh, I may go try to that tree
Speaker 1: tomorrow or go, you know, maybe try that set up,
Speaker 1: you know, mid day and go have a stand hung
Speaker 1: there for when the wind switches back. Right. Um, So
Speaker 1: you know that it can it can teach you a
Speaker 1: lot playing it safe. But you know, there does come
Speaker 1: a point where it's like you're getting a little bit late.
Speaker 1: You've been there for five or six days. It's like
Speaker 1: how long can you continue to do this? Um, and
Speaker 1: you've got to push in a little bit. But um,
Speaker 1: you know I would probably you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: play it's safe to start off with, and then you know,
Speaker 1: gradually creep in if you can't. Yeah, high risk, high reward.
Speaker 1: That's right, here's kind of a natural next step scenario.
Speaker 1: Then if we if we say, we're kind of kind
Speaker 1: of play it a little bit safe in the beginning, right,
Speaker 1: So let's imagine it's it's that hunt and we're a
Speaker 1: little bit off of the best stuff. We're still in
Speaker 1: some pretty good areas though, and you see a shooter
Speaker 1: buck cruising about a hundred yards out, and like I said,
Speaker 1: it's like early ish November give or take somewhere in
Speaker 1: that window. He's a hundred yards away, but if he
Speaker 1: continues on his current path about another hundred yards, he
Speaker 1: will eventually hit your win. So my question is to you,
Speaker 1: would you aggressively call to him to try to get
Speaker 1: him to come your way? Would you be worried that
Speaker 1: he's kind of heading into your general wind direction? Does
Speaker 1: any of that pass through your mind? You not call
Speaker 1: at all? What's your what's your move in that situation? Mm? Hmm,
Speaker 1: trying to think think through this. Um, that's a tough call,
Speaker 1: you know. If if you I may try to rattle
Speaker 1: and grund a little bit, you know, just to see
Speaker 1: if that doesn't switch him, you know, trying to just
Speaker 1: to turn his direction. Um. That that probably would be
Speaker 1: what I would likely to do is to call, maybe
Speaker 1: not call it too aggressively, or might try to snort
Speaker 1: weise um, to see if that doesn't turn his head. Um.
Speaker 1: But that's that's tough. I don't know, I mean, I
Speaker 1: would I would do. I would do at least the
Speaker 1: minimum of what I could control to try to stop
Speaker 1: him and just see if that doesn't doesn't change his
Speaker 1: direction at all, so he doesn't hit my wind. I
Speaker 1: would try that. I don't know if I would call
Speaker 1: to aggressively just because I don't want him to be
Speaker 1: spooked from that on top of the wind um, you know,
Speaker 1: thinking it's you know pressure. UM, So I would try
Speaker 1: the minimum of at least trying to lightly call. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when I was like sixteen seventeen years old, and
Speaker 1: if I saw a buck out of range, I would
Speaker 1: you know, throw a grunt at him, and then he'd
Speaker 1: stopped and then to keep walking. Then I grunt twice
Speaker 1: at him. He'd stopped and looking then to keep walking,
Speaker 1: and then I'd like grunt louder at him, and then
Speaker 1: he keep walking and then I'd like snort wheez at
Speaker 1: him and then he'd run away. Right, all right, That's
Speaker 1: what I'm worried about too. You know, that time of
Speaker 1: year can be, like you said, high risk, high reward.
Speaker 1: But you know, I just trying not to educate him
Speaker 1: any more than what I have to. UM. So I'd
Speaker 1: like to think I wouldn't be overly aggressive with that,
Speaker 1: um because there's there's always tomorrow. Yeah, So what's your
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm wondering is what's the like, what's
Speaker 1: the cut off mark? Like when do you say all right,
Speaker 1: he's just not into it, Like, will you try a
Speaker 1: couple of grunts or a couple of things, and then
Speaker 1: if he still ignores that, then you say, all right,
Speaker 1: well it's just not happening. Or how do you know
Speaker 1: when enough is enough? Yeah, I think just reading the
Speaker 1: deer's body language, you know, as best I can. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, if he maybe stops, you know, to a
Speaker 1: couple of grunts, may try to you know, lightly rattle
Speaker 1: mike snort, wee's one time. Um. And if you know,
Speaker 1: if the deer doesn't doesn't react, or you know, maybe
Speaker 1: stops just for a brief second, keeps on going, then
Speaker 1: you know, I'll call it off. I won't try to
Speaker 1: get any louder, won't continue to do it. And if
Speaker 1: he hits my win, he hits my win. You know,
Speaker 1: that's that's just that's uh, that's part of it. But
Speaker 1: I definitely don't want to try to spoke him anymore
Speaker 1: than what I have to in hopes of, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to maybe close him out later in the season
Speaker 1: or the next day or if I half a few days. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, our hope that maybe he well somehow not
Speaker 1: hit my wind is as bad as I think you
Speaker 1: will you know, maybe he's got his back to me
Speaker 1: where he uh where he maybe want is not paying attention.
Speaker 1: So here's another kind of spotting a buck off in
Speaker 1: the distance situation. Let's say the same kind of deal
Speaker 1: you spotted shoot her buck, but instead of him cruising,
Speaker 1: let's say he's locked on a doll and it's the afternoon,
Speaker 1: and you can see that this dough is very slowly
Speaker 1: kind of heading off in the direction of a food source.
Speaker 1: They're in the betting area still, but she's kind of
Speaker 1: doing that thing where she moves off five ten yards.
Speaker 1: He's standing behind her, then he walks up, stands right
Speaker 1: next to her, and then she moves off and they
Speaker 1: they're just slowly doing this. You're sitting, you know, a
Speaker 1: hundred yards a hundred fifty yards away, kind of back
Speaker 1: behind him, watching them slowly get further and further away
Speaker 1: from you. But they're moving slow. So in that situation,
Speaker 1: would you would you ever try to call that buck
Speaker 1: and try to get him over to you. Would you
Speaker 1: slip out of your stand and try to move and
Speaker 1: like get ahead of them or anything, or would you
Speaker 1: just say I'm just gonna stick it out where I
Speaker 1: am and and hope that something crazy happens and they
Speaker 1: swing by, or a different buck comes through or something else.
Speaker 1: I might try to throw in a couple of like grunts.
Speaker 1: I might even try to snort ways, um, especially if
Speaker 1: it's here on our place in Georgia, But that would
Speaker 1: probably be the bare minimum. Um you know, I would
Speaker 1: try to just anticipate maybe for that next day or
Speaker 1: next few days. I wouldn't try to get down and
Speaker 1: and try to get ahead of them. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I may try to do that, may be somewhere else,
Speaker 1: but um you know, maybe like in Montana or Nebraska.
Speaker 1: You know, you may try to do that, but I'd
Speaker 1: still try to play it as safe as I could,
Speaker 1: because I think you know where I've I've messed up
Speaker 1: before in Montana is getting down out of the tree
Speaker 1: to try to get closer. I've ended up really you know,
Speaker 1: blowing some fields out and it and it really cost
Speaker 1: to me. And it may take these deer sometimes a
Speaker 1: week or two to really move back in and get
Speaker 1: comfortable again. Um So I've I've learned that the hard way,
Speaker 1: you know, in some of these places. Um So, I'd say,
Speaker 1: you know, at least the first time, like if it
Speaker 1: doesn't work, maybe after a couple of days and you
Speaker 1: can't get any closer than maybe you do try the
Speaker 1: ground approach. But um, i'd say to start off with
Speaker 1: you know, better safe. Yeah, what was your You mentioned that,
Speaker 1: you know, waiting till the next day and then adjusting.
Speaker 1: What would your adjustment be for that next day? Would
Speaker 1: you just try to move in right to where you
Speaker 1: saw them again and hope they come back or what
Speaker 1: it's your plan? Yeah? I think you know, maybe try
Speaker 1: and maybe hoping that that dough may take him, um,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe closer to us that next day. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, like that that time of year, a lot
Speaker 1: of these deer get out there in that alf alfa
Speaker 1: and you're very limited on what you can do as
Speaker 1: far as the movement of where you can you know,
Speaker 1: move some of these tree stands. You know, you may
Speaker 1: be able to move sometimes a ground blind closer to
Speaker 1: where these deer you know where maybe the day before um,
Speaker 1: and that may be able to help you a little
Speaker 1: bit for for cent and trying to keep that keep
Speaker 1: that keep that you know, sent away from those deer
Speaker 1: as much as possible. So um, you know, so that
Speaker 1: that would be what I would probably try to do
Speaker 1: is uh, you know, just just try to wait it
Speaker 1: out and hopefully he ends up making a mistake a
Speaker 1: day or two later. Now would this? Uh? I want
Speaker 1: to see if if your answer would change it off?
Speaker 1: We were to shift a couple of things. Let's let's
Speaker 1: change that sitting from an afternoon sighting to instead being
Speaker 1: a morning sighting. And now you see the buck locked
Speaker 1: on a dough. But now they're bedded down, they're betted together.
Speaker 1: It's the morning. They're in a grassy, grassy, brushy kind
Speaker 1: of thicket. What what are you doing that scenario? Does that?
Speaker 1: Would that change your mind in any kind of way?
Speaker 1: Are you still approaching the same way? Um? So that
Speaker 1: that he's betted down with the dough, he's locked down
Speaker 1: with the doughs. What you're saying? Yep, it's the morning.
Speaker 1: They're betted down. It's like ten am. They're betted down together.
Speaker 1: They're a hundred yards away from you. You see them,
Speaker 1: They're not going anywhere. What do you do? Man? I
Speaker 1: just I don't think if they're bedded down and I'm
Speaker 1: in a tree, you know, I don't think there's anything
Speaker 1: I could do even to to call to him. Um,
Speaker 1: I think I'd be very limited on what I could
Speaker 1: do in that scenario. I think you still, you know,
Speaker 1: you'd have to sit it out and wait, I just
Speaker 1: find it at least in my experience. You know, you
Speaker 1: and others may be different. But you know, getting down
Speaker 1: on a deer like that, you know, if a white
Speaker 1: tail does stand up, they're not going to give you
Speaker 1: a whole lot of time to react, you know, get
Speaker 1: your bow drawn. Um, and then I'm just worried about
Speaker 1: messing it up for the remainder of the hunt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and because you know, in my situation, you've got a
Speaker 1: camera guy with you most of the time too. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, when you have two people trying to stalk
Speaker 1: and get closer, it it's even that much more difficult. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, there there may be some some situation where
Speaker 1: you can try and close the distance and maybe try
Speaker 1: to get in another tree. But um, yeah, that's that's tough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a doozy, that's for sure. Let's let's
Speaker 1: pivot to a slightly different situation here. Now, Let's let's
Speaker 1: again say that you're Sharon Hunt and camp with some friends.
Speaker 1: It's the rut you're somewhere in the Midwest, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, We'll say maybe it's Illinois or Indiana,
Speaker 1: something like that. And you're all out there for a
Speaker 1: week together and you just cannot buy a shooter buck
Speaker 1: sighting like you're hunting great looking stuff, but nothing is
Speaker 1: panning out for you. But one of your buddies has
Speaker 1: kind of had a little zone that he's been focusing on,
Speaker 1: and it's been crazy over there. He's he's been in
Speaker 1: big deer every single day, different bucks coming through. And
Speaker 1: on day five of your seven day hunt, he kills one,
Speaker 1: he tags out, he's out of there. You've got one
Speaker 1: or two days left. Would you consider going into his
Speaker 1: spot that was on fire, but where he also just
Speaker 1: killed a deer and tracted deer and did all that stuff,
Speaker 1: or would you stick to your own plan and zone
Speaker 1: you've been focusing on up to this point. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. Um, you know, this may not
Speaker 1: be the right answer, maybe there is no right answer.
Speaker 1: But I've always been the kind of guy. If I
Speaker 1: have time, you know, invested into a certain spot, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you know, won't be as willingness to pick up
Speaker 1: and move. You know, I get so familiar and comfortable
Speaker 1: with my surroundings, even if you know, maybe a buck
Speaker 1: hasn't shown up, you know, quite yet. I always will
Speaker 1: sit it out until the very very you know, last minute,
Speaker 1: you know, even if we're unsuccessful. Um, you know, I like,
Speaker 1: you know, just going in somewhere where I'm I'm more familiar, uh,
Speaker 1: you know than picking up and move into a different location. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, but sometimes you have to and and and
Speaker 1: you know, in that scenario, you know, maybe I might
Speaker 1: try to move in there, um and and you know,
Speaker 1: try my luck somewhere else. But I've always found it
Speaker 1: for me, I just I try to really stick it
Speaker 1: out with the game plan that I've set out for myself.
Speaker 1: Um and maybe that and it doesn't always work out,
Speaker 1: you know, that's just part of the unfortunately part of
Speaker 1: the risk you take is you may be unsuccessful. But
Speaker 1: I've always found that maybe the you know, the longer
Speaker 1: I stick it out and try to exploit all options
Speaker 1: on the current location I'm in, it usually ends up
Speaker 1: paying off. Yeah. I addle with this every year during
Speaker 1: the rut. Like just last year was perfect example of this.
Speaker 1: I was I found just a dynamite rut spot. It
Speaker 1: was it was like everything all stacked up. It was
Speaker 1: downwind of a great dough betting area. It was like
Speaker 1: a hub of two different pinch points that came together,
Speaker 1: and there was a pond there, and I had food
Speaker 1: up on the rises above me. It was just it
Speaker 1: just screamed amazing. And and then it just wasn't. There
Speaker 1: was younger bucks and deer's kind of deer slowly rolling
Speaker 1: through here and there, but it was not what I
Speaker 1: was thinking it would be. The big ones never showed up,
Speaker 1: and I kept battling. I'd sit there like midday on
Speaker 1: these all day sits and say, okay, you you could
Speaker 1: trust the place and just believe that eventually the good
Speaker 1: one has to come through because it's such a good spot.
Speaker 1: Or you could go chase, you know, you could go
Speaker 1: try to find where the hot action is right now.
Speaker 1: And and I went back and forth a thousand times,
Speaker 1: and I I must have lost three or four years
Speaker 1: off my long term life expectancy because how much I
Speaker 1: stressed about it. And I never figured it out. I
Speaker 1: kind of did a little did a little bit of both,
Speaker 1: and it never worked. It's a it's a tough one,
Speaker 1: yeah it is, you know. And and and and and like,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are situations where maybe the hunting is
Speaker 1: really not as good for me, and like I'd want
Speaker 1: to go up there and try something different, you know,
Speaker 1: where my buddy was just successful, maybe tagged on on
Speaker 1: a really nice deer. I just I don't really know why.
Speaker 1: It's just you know, you have to kind of go
Speaker 1: in somewhere and learn that that place all over again. Um.
Speaker 1: And if I feel like there are some deer in
Speaker 1: the area where I'm currently at, you know, I like
Speaker 1: kind of sticking it out and seeing it through the end. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, but it doesn't always pay off. You know,
Speaker 1: there are many times, probably more often than it doesn't.
Speaker 1: So uh, it just you know, how stubborn can you be? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Does does that? Does that? I'm trying to say here,
Speaker 1: does that ever change in any way on the very
Speaker 1: last day of a hunt? Like do you do you
Speaker 1: have a situation or are there examples were in the
Speaker 1: past you've you've ran a game, playing all the way
Speaker 1: to the end and then you get to that last
Speaker 1: day and you get a wild hair or you say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I just gotta try something new, or
Speaker 1: I just gotta do the crazy thing, or I just
Speaker 1: gotta try X. Do you ever have that happen? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I've I've had that happen. And I've had
Speaker 1: it and and and just to be honest, I've had
Speaker 1: it not work out more so than you know, maybe
Speaker 1: I have had it work but you know, but that's
Speaker 1: I think that's to be expected. Um. You know, in
Speaker 1: in Nebraska in particular, I remember a hunt two years ago.
Speaker 1: We were there for thirteen days, um and very limited trees,
Speaker 1: very limited place you could put ladder stands or hanged on. UM.
Speaker 1: So I was I was kind of having to move
Speaker 1: my redneck bline you know, up and like just around,
Speaker 1: you know, different points of the field where these deer
Speaker 1: were coming. Well, I was trying not to get too
Speaker 1: close to where there were two or three tree else.
Speaker 1: Um that this he was a drop time eight pointer
Speaker 1: and you know where this deer was going. It was
Speaker 1: it was a really pretty deer, maybe a hundred fifty deer. UM.
Speaker 1: Never had killed a deer with the drop times of thought, Man,
Speaker 1: this would be really cool. But you know, I said, man,
Speaker 1: we're on day thirteen, like we gotta we gotta kind
Speaker 1: of go all in and get close to this spot.
Speaker 1: But I knew, you know, we're gonna have a good
Speaker 1: chance to go back maybe the middle of October. So
Speaker 1: if you're gonna try something like this now, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: now is the time to do it. Um. So, you know,
Speaker 1: we we have that mobile Redneck, put it on a
Speaker 1: trailer and I got within maybe fifty sixty yards of
Speaker 1: of where these deer were going, and there were a
Speaker 1: lot of deer coming down these two or three trails
Speaker 1: and actually saw him coming. It was not him that
Speaker 1: actually got spooked. It was really the deer that were
Speaker 1: in front of him, just kind of not liking the
Speaker 1: blind And even though you do have an enclosed Redneck,
Speaker 1: you know you still have sent you know, when you
Speaker 1: have to open up that front window, there's still some
Speaker 1: that can that can leak out and they're seeing you
Speaker 1: for the first time. You know, you've played it safe
Speaker 1: this long, but you know this this is uh, this
Speaker 1: is new for them. So you know, there were some
Speaker 1: deer that got the better of us on that one,
Speaker 1: and um it didn't work. Um, So that's but that's
Speaker 1: just kind of like I said, you know, part of it.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've maybe had one instance in Montana
Speaker 1: where we kind of went all out. There's a group
Speaker 1: of trees in the middle of alfalfa, and all all
Speaker 1: week long we were we were not not going in
Speaker 1: there because deer were on either side of this alfalfa,
Speaker 1: and we knew if we went in there and got
Speaker 1: in that got in that single row of trees, we
Speaker 1: were going to blow some deer. There were no if
Speaker 1: and butts about it. But it was next to last
Speaker 1: day of the hunt. Decided to go in there and
Speaker 1: hang a ladder mid morning. And another problem with that
Speaker 1: was deer were bedded out there in that alfalfa two
Speaker 1: and that was really the main problem why we didn't
Speaker 1: put a put a tree stand anything in there. But
Speaker 1: we went in there at ten o'clock, put up a
Speaker 1: ladder stand loose some deer out of there. It actually
Speaker 1: ended up paying off, you know, the deer actually when
Speaker 1: the wind started to die down late in the evening,
Speaker 1: um you know, he uh, the wind really wasn't blowing
Speaker 1: hard one direction, So it ended up working out. But
Speaker 1: you couldn't have guessed that beforehand. It was kind of
Speaker 1: just something that that just happened, you know. And I
Speaker 1: think a lot of deer hunting to requires a ton
Speaker 1: of luck. That has to go your way, man. So true,
Speaker 1: you just gotta do enough things right enough for the
Speaker 1: time to finally catch that lucky break to coincide with it.
Speaker 1: All right, yeah yeah, and you can overthink it. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we were doing all week. I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I wish we had tried that earlier
Speaker 1: in the week. But you know, when you look at
Speaker 1: it from up top and you see, you know, twenty
Speaker 1: head of deer betted, I'm like, man, what can you
Speaker 1: really go in there and do without blowing everything out?
Speaker 1: And we did. I'd probably say, you know, that field,
Speaker 1: we we blew out. Um. But you know when we
Speaker 1: hun that stand up at ten o'clock, we sit in
Speaker 1: there all day and shot that dear maybe with ten
Speaker 1: minutes left to go um of daylight. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: for for camera. So um, that's it ended up working out,
Speaker 1: But not all the time. It does. Sometimes you gotta
Speaker 1: give a shot. Yeah. All right. Here's one last kind
Speaker 1: of tough rut scenario that kind of rears his ugly
Speaker 1: head every few years and we all bemoan it. But
Speaker 1: let's say it's like the second week in November and
Speaker 1: you're on your rut trip to whoever it is this
Speaker 1: this year on that date, will say probably Kansas, Iowa,
Speaker 1: somewhere in the Midwest. Again, beautiful time of year, right,
Speaker 1: should be, should be top notch, But your weather conditions
Speaker 1: for that week are hot. It's like seventies and lousy
Speaker 1: and you're miserable out there. How does your hunting strategy
Speaker 1: change at all for that time of year or does
Speaker 1: it change at all given the warm weather or do
Speaker 1: you stick to your usual rut kind of tactics? Mm hmm, Man,
Speaker 1: I actually, I mean I feel like I experienced a
Speaker 1: lot out there in Kansas, and I try to usually
Speaker 1: hunt that last week in October first week in November
Speaker 1: in Kansas every year. Um, if you know, if we're
Speaker 1: not somewhere else. But man, I've seen it happened out
Speaker 1: there as well. I mean you can. I still wouldn't
Speaker 1: be opposed to sitting all day, even in really hot conditions.
Speaker 1: You just kind of never know. That can be a
Speaker 1: magical time really, no matter what the weather. Um you
Speaker 1: know the moon as well. So UM, you know, I
Speaker 1: try not to let it change my strategy up too
Speaker 1: much because you know, I've heard plenty of stories from
Speaker 1: people that hunt around that around that area. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: don't let the weather dictate too much that time of year.
Speaker 1: It's it's not it's not what it was two or
Speaker 1: three weeks prior. Um. And you want to be in
Speaker 1: a tree as much as possible. You know, there's like
Speaker 1: there's a window usually anywhere from that first week of
Speaker 1: really that last week of October Halloween, those first couple
Speaker 1: of weeks in November. I throw every other strategy I've
Speaker 1: had up until then, from September and October kind of
Speaker 1: out the window, um, because you know, yeah, you expect
Speaker 1: the unexpected that time. UM. And that goes with any
Speaker 1: weather condition. You know, there have been so many deer
Speaker 1: that don't show up on my camera. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: when I'm out there in a tree, even when it's
Speaker 1: hot cold, um, that I wouldn't have seen if I
Speaker 1: wasn't out there. And then you kind of adjust in
Speaker 1: your your strategy from there. So I would say, I
Speaker 1: would say, I try to stick it out. You know,
Speaker 1: the ruts just one of those times a year you
Speaker 1: can't I can't think about it too much. You just
Speaker 1: got to be out there. Yeah, and what about like
Speaker 1: what's your favorite if you had to kind of describe
Speaker 1: your favorite rut type of setups. I mean, is it
Speaker 1: is it the typical stuff that we all hunt, or
Speaker 1: do you have something a little off the beaten path
Speaker 1: that you tend to like to do during that time
Speaker 1: of year. Paint me a picture of what a what
Speaker 1: a rut hunt set might look like for you. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like it's pretty you know, I
Speaker 1: am trying to. I am usually in Kansas, you know,
Speaker 1: mostly that time of year, but anything where I can see,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it be you know, standing beans, you
Speaker 1: know that time of year in Kansas. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: seeing deer out there, uh, you know during the rut
Speaker 1: and then also being able to see um, you know,
Speaker 1: different trails and stuff too, or if I get eyes
Speaker 1: on a deer, you know, I can maybe try to
Speaker 1: turn it with a grunt or a rattle, um, you know,
Speaker 1: but having as much having as much of a visual
Speaker 1: uh that time of year for and it cover as
Speaker 1: much ground, I feel like it's really critical. Um. I
Speaker 1: like to I like to be able to see and
Speaker 1: you know, just for for deer out there. I mean
Speaker 1: I had plenty of times. You know, it does not
Speaker 1: always a monster, but you you get a glimpse of deer.
Speaker 1: That's four five hundred yards out there. You start rattling
Speaker 1: that deer, a deer will turn and come. Um. So
Speaker 1: I'll like being able to see as much much as
Speaker 1: possible and and to maybe stay on a heavy trail.
Speaker 1: What's your what's your rattling your typical rattling sequence look
Speaker 1: like during the rut? I'm just kind of curious, like
Speaker 1: how long? How you know, is it is just one
Speaker 1: NonStop thing? Is it? Stop? Start? Stop? Start with? What's
Speaker 1: that look like? Yeah? So I try to do it,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe every thirty to forty five minutes, And
Speaker 1: so a rattling sequence may go for I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe sometimes even forty five seconds to a minute. Um,
Speaker 1: and and and then I'll try to lay off, you know,
Speaker 1: for like I said, thirty five minutes unless I you know,
Speaker 1: have a visual of a deer that you know, I'm
Speaker 1: interested in trying to get turned around to come our way. UM,
Speaker 1: try not to overdo it. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: if you can't overdo it that time of year, but um,
Speaker 1: I try to give it as that's kind of my
Speaker 1: gap time in between rattling. All right, man, you have
Speaker 1: made it through the main section of the gauntlet. But
Speaker 1: we've got this last set of rapid fire questions. So
Speaker 1: I've got five six questions here. I'm gonna ask you
Speaker 1: real quick, one after the other, and I'm just looking
Speaker 1: for like a one word answer or as quick of
Speaker 1: an answer as you can give me on these, and
Speaker 1: we'll just rattle through real fast. Okay, okay, sounds good.
Speaker 1: All right. These are a little controversial, tyler, So you
Speaker 1: might get some haters coming off of these, to be ready,
Speaker 1: plenty of those anyway. Yeah, you and me and both buddy,
Speaker 1: So here here we go. Does the moon matter to
Speaker 1: dear movement? Yes? Or no? Yes? Would you take a
Speaker 1: fifty yards shot at a white tail with your bow? Yes?
Speaker 1: If you could only have one of these tools for
Speaker 1: the rest of your hunts for the rest of your life,
Speaker 1: would you choose rattling antlers or or a grunt tube,
Speaker 1: grant expandable or fixed blade broadheads? There you go? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's the haters. Um. Should you stop a walking buck
Speaker 1: with some kind of sound before shooting with your bow? Yes?
Speaker 1: Or no? Oh? Shoot? Um? Yes? Which state has better
Speaker 1: deer hunters? Georgia or Mississippi? Both? Yeah? Safe? Safe answer.
Speaker 1: All right, So here's the last one. This one is
Speaker 1: not quite as rapid fire. But let's imagine that I
Speaker 1: rule the world. I have control over all hunting scenarios, situations,
Speaker 1: license allocation, YadA, YadA, YadA. And here's the deal. I
Speaker 1: am going to take away your right to hunt for
Speaker 1: the next twenty years. You can't hunt ever again for
Speaker 1: twenty years, Tyler, unless unless you kill a mature buck
Speaker 1: in one day this season. I'm gonna let you pick
Speaker 1: the date. So pick the date on the calendar you
Speaker 1: want for this one hunt. And then you have to
Speaker 1: pick the one specific location. So tell me what state,
Speaker 1: tell me what the situation is, what you're set up is.
Speaker 1: Paint me the picture of what day and what you're
Speaker 1: set up is to kill this one mature buck you
Speaker 1: need to kill to save the next twenty years a hunting. Wow.
Speaker 1: That's that's tough. So save twenty years of hunting. Pick
Speaker 1: one spot. Um, I would say, you know, probably home,
Speaker 1: just because I'm so familiar with this place and have
Speaker 1: kind of grown up on it. Um. I really feel
Speaker 1: like even though that you know, the people would argue
Speaker 1: that maybe other places would be easier. I feel like
Speaker 1: I could have a good chance at a mature deer here. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm just so familiar with this property, so
Speaker 1: I would say that, you know, maybe early sea season, um,
Speaker 1: you know, finding a spot like in the woods, kind
Speaker 1: of like what I had last year with with my
Speaker 1: dear hunting somewhere near Oaks pin Oaks, Water Oaks Salt too. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, so that would be that would probably be
Speaker 1: my deal. Setup is somewhere early season September. Um, let's
Speaker 1: just say for you know, we we've been we've been
Speaker 1: fortunate here to have a lot of mature deer still
Speaker 1: on a pattern early season, so I would say early
Speaker 1: season is really my favorite time. So let's just say
Speaker 1: September T I'll play the odds and and hopefully hopefully
Speaker 1: be able to get a mature buck down. But early season,
Speaker 1: early season in Georgia, probably hunt in the woods. I
Speaker 1: like it. You've bucked the usual trend most people pick
Speaker 1: like the first week in November in the Midwest. So
Speaker 1: I like that. You uh, you're willing to risk it
Speaker 1: in Georgia early season. That takes some going nuts. I
Speaker 1: like it. I think I think the reason why it
Speaker 1: is just you know, other places while it can be
Speaker 1: really good. It could be really unpredictable. Yeah, um, you know,
Speaker 1: and it may not pay off for me. But you know,
Speaker 1: I've always found I like early season more than I
Speaker 1: do maybe the end of October one November, while it
Speaker 1: can be fun um, you know, dear, a little bit
Speaker 1: more patterntable for us, that early part. Yeah, I really
Speaker 1: love that early season to something something pretty special about
Speaker 1: that that bed feed pattern. They can still be on
Speaker 1: and they can still be visible and you can figure
Speaker 1: them out and it's fun. It's a really good time.
Speaker 1: It is and we're getting close to it too. Exciting stuff,
Speaker 1: sure is. And uh, you made it through. You've completed
Speaker 1: the gauntlets, so h thanks thanks for for bearing with
Speaker 1: me on this and and taking a trip down a
Speaker 1: few of these wild storylines. No, it was fun, Mark,
Speaker 1: It's been been a pleasure. I really appreciate you having
Speaker 1: me on. Oh yeah, man, right back at you. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time. And and before you go,
Speaker 1: can you just feel folcus in on you know where
Speaker 1: they can catch the latest with the new season of
Speaker 1: of Road Trips and anything else you guys have got
Speaker 1: coming out that people should be keeping tabs on. How
Speaker 1: can they follow you throughout the year all that stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I have my own Instagram, Facebook, Tyler Jordan pretty
Speaker 1: easy to find. Realtory Road Trips UM is the digital
Speaker 1: show that we're hosting myself, Brian Brown, who's a producer.
Speaker 1: He'll be hunting on camera, and then we have a
Speaker 1: new addition, Michael Pitts will also be joining us. He'll
Speaker 1: be out there in Nebraska for that first week of
Speaker 1: most season. Chipper Jones will be out there with us. Um,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do some semi live hunts from out there.
Speaker 1: So excited to kind of going to go the Bill
Speaker 1: Winky model, and uh, you know, when we have hunts,
Speaker 1: we're gonna try to get them uploaded that night, maybe
Speaker 1: late in the night, but we're gonna have guys working
Speaker 1: hard trying to get that stuff edited and content out there.
Speaker 1: So um excited, can't wait to get the season going.
Speaker 1: And then after Nebraska, we're gonna be in Georgia. I
Speaker 1: got a couple of nice ones here. Maybe not quite
Speaker 1: as big as last year, but it's a nice dear nonetheless,
Speaker 1: and uh, looking forward to hunting with the family. So
Speaker 1: ready to kick off the twenty two season. Can't wait, awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to filling long Tyler, and keep up
Speaker 1: the great work and uh good luck this year. Awesome Martin,
Speaker 1: You two all right and that's a rap. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining me, appreciate you. Make sure you're following along
Speaker 1: with Wired Hunt on Instagram, maybe on TikTok. Now I
Speaker 1: don't like TikTok, not a fan, but uh I'm there.
Speaker 1: That's another story though, So follow me on TikTok, follow
Speaker 1: me on a Wired to Hunt's Instagram account, Facebook, the
Speaker 1: Wired Hunt Weekly newsletter. Check it all out, Have a
Speaker 1: great day, Good luck with your summer scouting or your
Speaker 1: early season hunts. Whatever you're up to right now, get
Speaker 1: after it, have fun, and stay wired to Hunt.